Textile printing process



* Solutions or emulsions of polyamides such Patented as. Z 1943 assessUNITED STATES PATENT orrlce TEXTHE PRINTING PROCESS Charles FranklinMiller, Wilmington, DeL, assignor to E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company,Wilmington, DeL, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. ApplicationFebruary is, 1941,

1 Serial No. 379,465

8 Claims. (01. 8-18) 'as the selected sizing or finishing agent can beapplied before printing instead of after print- 7 ing as in prior artpractice. Y

Most alkaline types of printing pastes when printed on cotton goods tendto diffuse more or less readily through the fibers immediately ad-,

jacent to the'printed portion of the goods and impart a somewhat unevenappearance to the printed design, which is particularly troublesome whensmall or fine designs are to be printed and leads to the production ofmuch second-grade goods with consequent financial losses. I havediscovered that if the cloth is padded before' printing with substanceswhich block this capillary diffusion, the sharpness of register wlthalkaline type printing pastes, such as vat color printing pastes or thestabilized azoic color printing pastes, is greatly improved. Mostsubstances which have this property of preventing capillary diffusionare resinous in nature and many of them are now used as sizing andfinishing agents. Some of them are classed as permanent or substantivesizing or finishing agents; that is, they are not removed from thefabric by repeated laundering. Consequently if those agents which arepermanent or substantive in nature are used in my process, no additionalexpense to the textile manufacturer is necessary as the sizing orfinishing agent is merely applied to the goods before printing ratherthan after theprinting operation, as has been the prevailing practiceprior to the present invention.

I have. found the following substances to be particularly applicable inmy process as they give not only the desired increase in sharpness ofregister of the'printed design but remain in or on the fabric to givethe desired sized or finished condition:

Solutions or emulsions of alkyl acrylate ormethacrylate polymers; 1

Alkali soluble alkyl celluloses such as those described in UJS; Patents2,036,257 and'2,046,1'l4;

' Deacetylated chitin; Solutions or emulsions of rubber or chlor-ruh-.bers: I

Polyvinyl alcohols;

Solutions or emulsions. of co-polymers of vinyl chloride and vinylacetate;

those described in U. 5. Patents 2,130,947 and The following examplesillustrate but in no no wise limit the invention.

Example 1 Cotton piece goods are padded in a 2% emul-.

sion of n-b'utyl methacrylate polymer, air dried, baked 1 hour at 120 C.in a tenter or similar hot air dryingapparatus and printed with a vatcolor printing paste containing 20% of a color paste of the vatdyestuif, dimetho'xy-dibenzamthrone (Colour Index No. 1101), 12% ofpotassium carbonate, 12% of sodium sulfoxylate-formaldehyde, 5% ofglycerine and sufiicient of a thickening agent, such as starches orgums, to

give a printable consistencyto the paste; dried, aged 5 minutes in a vatcolor ager of the Mather- Platt type, oxidized for 45 seconds in a bathcontaining of sodium ,bichromate and 3 7};

of acetic acid, rinsed, soaped 10 minutes at 180- 200 F. in a soapsolution, rinsed and dried, giving abrilliant green design on as wlnteground which is much sharper in outlinethan a similar print on unpaddedmaterial, In addition to the increased sharpness of printed detail, thisfabric has the usualdes'irable handle obtained by treating goods afterthe printing process has been completed with n-butyl methacrylateemulsions.

Example 2 v Cotton piece goods are padded with a 1% solution of methylcellulose, air dried and printed with a 4% printing paste of thed'yestufl containing equal molecular parts of the soluble diazoiminocompound formed by reacting diazotized 4-chloro-2-amino-toluene withpiperidinealpha-carboxylic acid and the ortno-toluidide of2:3-hydroxy-naphthoic acid,- suitably dissolved in a solvent and causticalkali and thickened with starch and gum tragacanth; The printed goodsare dried, then aged for 3-5 minutes in an acetic acid a'ger, rinsed,soaped and finished as usual, giving a more sharply d: fined red patternthan is obtained by a similar print on unpadded J material.-

The padding substances mentioned in the above examples may be replacedby solutions or emulsions of the following resinous agents with theattainment of increased sharpness of printed design and permanent sizingor finishing action on the fabric.

. Emulsion of iso-butyl methacrylate polymer.

Emulsion of n-hexyl acrylate polymer. Alkali soluble alkyl cellulosesdescribed in" U. S.

Patents 2,036,257 and 2,046,174. Solutions or emulsions of deacetylatedchitin.

Solutions or emulsions of rubber, chlorinated I Solutions oremulsions ofthe polyamides described in U. S. Patents 2,130,947 and 2,130,948.Resort may be had to such modifications and equivalents as fall withinthe spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A process of printing a cotton fabric to obtain sharply registeredcolored designs thereupon which comprises applying to said fabric apermanent finishing and sizing agent selected from the group consistingof alkyl acrylate polymers, alkyl methacrylate polymers, alkali solublealkyl celluloses, deacetylated chitin, rubber, chlor-rubbers, polyvinylalcohols, co-polymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, andpolyamides, and then printing upon the said finished and sized fabricwith an alkaline type of printing paste.

2. A process as defined in claim 1 in which the permanent finishing andsizing agent is an alkyl methacrylate polymer.

3. A process as defined in claim 1 in which the permanent finishing andsizing agent is an alkali soluble alkyl cellulose.

4. A process as defined in claim 1 in which the alkaline type ofprinting paste is one selected from the group consisting of vat colorprinting pastes and stabilized azoric color printing pastes.

5. A process of printing a cotton fabric to obtain sharply registeredcolored designs thereupon fabric with an alkaline type of printingpaste.

'7. A process of printing a cotton fabric to obtain sharply registeredcolored designs thereupon which comprises finishing and sizing saidfabric with an unsubstituted alkyl methacrylate polymer and thenprinting.upon the finished and sized fabric with a vat color printing paste.

8. A process of printing a cotton fabric to obtain sharply registeredcolored designs thereupon which comprises finishing and sizing saidfabric with an unsubstituted. alkyl methacrylate polymer and thenprinting upon the finished and sized fabric with a stabilized azoiccolor printing paste.

CHARLES FRANKLIN MILLER.

